Banff to San Fransico

[Vhalvo]

As an Aussie would love some ideas on road trips travelling may 2017. Staying a week in Banff from 7 May to 14 May. Have two options to have an Alaskan cruise from Seattle/ seattle leaving 30 April then going onto Banff then road trip down to possibly San Fran then flying back to Sydney. Or picking up cruise from San Fran/ San Fran on 18 May. Or cruise from Seattle on 20 May. Would love to fit in Vancouver if possible. Assuming we can hire car from Canada to drop off USA.
Thanks in anticipation

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

...it is essentially impossible to rent a car in the U.S. or Canada and drop it off in the other country. On the other hand it is very easy to rent in one country and drive into the other, as long as you return it to its country of origin (where it is owned, registered and insured). With that in mind, if you want to visit Vancouver, then your best option is probably to rent your car in the U.S., drive to Vancouver (a 2½-3 hour drive from Seattle), and return to Seattle in time to catch your cruise to Alaska. Alternatively, you can take a ferry from Seattle to Vancouver and start your cruise to Alaska from there. Depending on how long you want to spend in Vancouver you could rent a car locally for that portion of your trip.

If you haven't booked your trans-Pacific flights yet, you might want to look into flying into Seattle rather than San Francisco. You'll also want to consider how long you want to be on a cruise ship, how much driving you want to do, what you want to see, and a host of other items that will go into designing the trip that best suits you.

AZBuck

[AZBuck]

I actually did a search on renting a car in San Francisco or Seattle and dropping it off in Vancouver. There are a couple of firms that will let you do this, but at a cost. Consider the following:

A one week economy car rental from/to Seattle would be: $374
To drop it off in Vancouver at the end of the week: $852

A one week economy car rental from/to San Francisco would be: $ 182
To drop it off in Vancouver at the end of the week: $1516 !!!

AZBuck

[Vhalvo]

I actually did a search on renting a car in San Francisco or Seattle and dropping it off in Vancouver. There are a couple of firms that will let you do this, but at a cost. Consider the following:

A one week economy car rental from/to Seattle would be: $374
To drop it off in Vancouver at the end of the week: $852

A one week economy car rental from/to San Francisco would be: $ 182
To drop it off in Vancouver at the end of the week: $1516 !!!

AZBuck

Many thanks for the prompt reply. Will certainly look into the flight to Seattle. I've heard the ferry from Victoria down is very nice.

[Lifemagician]

You don't say how much time you plan to have in Vancouver, but if you have a couple of days, and a car, I would highly recommend that you take the Sea to Sky highway to Lillooet. It is a very scenic drive past a couple of provincial parks and through the mountain town of Whistler, as well as the three Glacial lakes in the vicinity of Lillooet - which is also a lovely little town.

How are you travelling to and from Banff? I sure hope you will be driving that spectacular country, and stopping by all the waterfalls, wildlife and provincial and national parks. It is a spectacular drive, being able to stop at all the places folk only get to see as the train whizzes past.

If you are a member of NRMA, be sure to bring your membership with you. It will give you access to maps and tourism information from the AAA in the US and the CAA in Canada. As part of your planning you may find it worthwhile to get some maps now, to see all these places and routes in more detail, with so much information you'll never see on a little (or not so little) screen. If you scroll down this page to the RTA store, you can order a Rand McNally road atlas. Order it now and you will have it in a couple of weeks. [You may of course be able to purchase that in Sydney. I can in Melbourne, but it is more than twice as much as from the RTA store, even with postage.]

Lifey